Right on time for our class, Ben Bernacke sends a big warning to us, about entitlement programs, the debt and the future. We will study the Fed beginning after the midterm (Wednesday 1/24 10 am).
This post is required blogging for the last entry of the semester. You may post one additional entry on the topics below for extra credit. Submission deadline for both will be Monday 1/22, 7am.
More links to commentary in the days to come. Such as this recent poll on the state of the economy.
25 comments:
So these "looming deficits" that are supposed to affect our Social Security and Medicare are just becoming worse over time. Bernanke says that we should have dealt with the problem ten years ago and still nothing has been done. This is a scary thought as we see more and more people retiring and still nothing being done to solve the problem. I think that if we dont act soon we wont have the same benefits that we have now.
the fact that politicians are afraid of this subject bc if they address it as it should be addressed they wont be elected again. they should realize what has to be done and do it, no matter if they are reelected. social security benefits will have to be cut back or the age raised. the gov't could also set up better retirement plans for workers so they wouldnt need so much social security.
Bush isn't helping at all with his whole "personal investment accounts," he's not considering people who can't afford to set up an investment account, and those are the people that rely on social security the most. The set up is obviously deeply flawed, and it's not going to be easy to solve the problem, if we make the age later, than people won't be able to retire till they're 70! But if we don't make the age older than we lose benefits. Maybe workplaces should supply their workers with pensions, but what about people who are self-employed? Social security needs to be redone.
Is it me or is it a little late for the Fed to have just started addressing benefit defecits? In my opinion, it's going to take a long time for them to agree on a plan and then collect/raise money for our social security and medicare...so will be supported in time? And if it's so expensive to support post-war retirees, why are we recruiting more and more soldiers that the gov. can't afford to pay for? Yes, I understand that there are war requirements and such but I think it is more important to acknowledge our internal problems instead of creating more and more outside our country. And if they do reach a point where they need to raise our interest rates, the economy will lose its current stimulus and recede anyway...so what will they do?
Instead of saying that we should have dealt with the deficits formed by Social Security ten years ago, Bernacke should step up to the plate and make a change since with these looming deficits a time machine is not in the budget. Although benefits will be cut and the retirement age raised causing less people to recieve their social securtiy payments this issue must be dealt with. The United States economy cannot afford to have the severe effects of the deficit pace proposed by the Congressional Budget Office. This would drain consumer confidence to a minimal level.
Politicians need to fix this problem now, even if it means that their populartiy go down. There will probably have to be an age increase for social security benefits, and it'll suck for some people but it'll help.
I guess the main problem is America is that Politicians generally have themselves in mind, not the people. This is usually fine because the people elect the politicians and so in return the politicians do whats best for the people responsible for getting them there. This model pretty much works, where it begins to breakdown however is when what is in the best interest for the people is not in the best interest of the people of tomorrow. People are selfish, and tend to do what is best for themselves currently. In fact this is the reason why the Federal Reserve Board is not elected positions. The problem will not have any easy solution until politicians take one for the team and make the hard decisions or the American people wise up. In my opinion neither of these things are headed in the right direction.
weather they raise taxes or increase the age to be able to collect benefits people aren't going to be happy. cause no one wants to work longer then they have to unless they really love their job. and i can't think of a single person i know who wants a tax hike. and since i can't see the general population of America going along with either of the solutions i think we are fighting a losing battle with this. cause if by some chance the people elect a president or congress that does do the right thing to fix the problem, the people wont be very happy with it and will vote someone into office that will put things back to the way they were.
i feel that most people want benefits from the government yet they don't want to pay for them. so that a deficit is going to be naturally happening IMO.
No matter what the government does there will always be people that disagree with their actions. It is an obvious problem that our country is facing right now, that we have too many people retiring at one time. If you have people retire later in their lives that could solve part of the problem but the older people get the less they want to work and the less they will be able to work. Eventually their quality of workmanship will decrease. It is a problem that our government is going to have to fix without worrying about upsetting people because people are never going to agree on a single situation.
This problem is not good. they should just suck it up and fix it, some people will get upset but its gotta be done. increase the age for social securty benefits.
benefit deficites are starting to manifest into a very large problem in the united states. when the chairman of the federal reserve is saying that "the right time to start fixing this problem is about ten years ago" you know there's a big problem. although i don't understand why mr. bernanke didn't offer up any solutions to this problem considering he is very learned on this subject. it is also scary to think about how social security and medicare outlays are rising at a very swift rate. i know there are plenty of theories of ways to help contain this problem such as increasing the age to collecting benefits; but ultimately this could compare to how long it took to create cars that don't run on fossil fuels. however, they haven't figured that out yet.
This is problem is so ridiculous. People are gonna end up getting screwed in this. we need to just man up now and raise taxes or something and politicians have to do whats right now and stop worrying about whats good for them and start worrying about whats good for the country.
Something has to be done to make everyone happy, not just the politicians getting elected and the people electing them. People dont naturally want a tax increase, but its needed to help get out of debt. the government shouldnt spend what it doesnt have, and take away from the medicare and social security that they are entitled to. people need to get their acts together and get something put together that will work for everyone
This problem needs to be fixed now, or else the nation will no longer have the smell of old people. That will be our generation that has no benifits. The baby boomers produced way to many babies in ther hippie days, we need to stop this problem before we can no longer fix it. If this means inceasing taxes and public disapproval then so be id rather have less dollars in the bank now then none later.
Well this medicare and social security problem will affect our generation the most, and all because politicians are self fish. Even though we will be in a major debt in 2030 is the federal reserve thinking about all the money that is coming in from illegal immigrants? because they never claim their taxes or social security.
This is definitely a scary topic, and one that I have no idea what the best approach is. Anyhow, I hope they come up with a reasonable and efficient way to deal with this, but I wonder if that is possible. And I also wonder if any compromise will be possible over the next two years between Congress and the administration, and obviously that will be necessary for any kind of action. Oh, and..."Tax cuts may be beneficial to the economy but that they “usually” do not pay for themselves by generating more tax revenue than they drain from the treasury." I would be curious to see the facts on that topic, because I thought that the numbers that have come in over the years had proven that they are beneficial all the time by bringing in more revenue...please tell me if you know the facts. And I’m very surprised that Bush hired a guy that would say that.
this issue is very serious and must be dealt with. it is unfortunate that it has been looming over our heads for ten years and nothing has been done about it up unitl now. accorind to the chariman of the federal reserve, Ben Bernanke, "the longer we wait, the more severe, the more draconian, the more difficult the adjustment is going to be.” i think that this should motivate the politicians to help solve the problem, even if their popularity is at stake.
Politicians need to realize that they have to be less concerned with their reelection adn more concerned with fixing this problem. If they do not Social Security benefits will have to be cut or the age will have to increase. Saying that the problem should have been dealt with 10 years ago is not going to solve it politicians need to take action pronto.
It's about time the continuous tax cuts were addressed; with the costs of the war, the deficit is only getting bigger. The economy needs to have taxes raised in order to start paying off the debt that we will inherit as we get older. However, no politician wants to flaunt the fact that he or she is in favor of a tax increase. Politicians unfortunately care more about their public image than what is best for the economy-they might not get re-elected if they want to raise taxes. What the economy needs now is a martyr, someone to tell Americans what they need instead of what they want.
if something should have been done a while ago then people would have been upset then so no matter what happens now people will be upset no one wants to pay more money or work longer then they planed for their future either way they can't go back and change what should have been done so the change will have to happen now
To fix the Social Security dilemma there is going to need to be compromising on all parts. Ideally, a collective effort should be made by politicians to raise taxes to help get us out of the deficit(even though that probably won't happen). People will hate it, but maybe if they are made more aware of the severity of this issue and how it could potentially wreck our economy they will save more. Perhaps the threat of pushing retirement to 70 will make people less opposed to taxes. And Bush should just give up on the privatization standpoint because people aren't going to go for that(and the fact that much of this deficit is being caused by a war he started doesn't help either.) It is pretty crazy how much 200 billion dollars could buy..
I don’t think the answer lies in a single solution. the government can't just find all the money they need and make it work. there needs to be changes. the government needs to raise taxes to compensate for all the money they are dishing out. I think Senator Judd Gregg is totally right. i don’t really pay taxes yet so I don’t have as good a comprehension of what the effects on my income and style of living would be if they were a raise. But obviously that means less spending. they tax raise couldn’t be extremely high because it would slow the economy’s spending, but bush is doing enough spending for all of us.
For all our sakes i hope they can find the best approach to this matter. I really don't want to find myself paying such high taxes later in life because of bad decisions made today about our social security and medicare programs. And i'd never thought id say this but i actually like the way Bernanke is trying to handle this problem.
the government has to work on reducing the large defict that the United States has built up. But i feel that it will b very hard for one person alone to accomplish this. This is going to have to be a group effort on all sides and compramises will have to be made. The government should of taken care of all of this sooner rather than later.
obviously this is a major issue that needs to be dealt with as soon as
possible. its understandable that its difficult for politicians to be
elected with the promise to raise taxes, but time is of the essence, and we
need to find a solution as soon as possible. maybe if this issue was
presented more to the mainstream voters could take action? there are a lot
of possiblities but none that suit everyone. in order for this to work,
compromises have to be made on all sides. there is no easy way out, we all
have to cave in some way or another. i just hope we can deal with this
situation quick, before its too late.
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